Shares of Citrix Systems Up By 69% on Microsoft Deal

Published: May 13, 1997

Shares of Citrix Systems Inc. surged 69 percent yesterday after the Microsoft Corporation agreed to license its software technology and include it in coming versions of Microsoft Windows NT.

As part of the agreement, Citrix, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will get an initial $75 million fee from Microsoft and as much as $100 million in royalties tied to sales of Microsoft products using Citrix technology, the companies said.

Citrix's stock jumped $13.375, to $32.625, on the Nasdaq market, where it was the most active issue.

The agreement erased much of the concern in recent months about Citrix. In February, Citrix's stock plunged after Microsoft told Citrix executives that if the companies could not agree to develop the technology together, Microsoft would go it alone.

Citrix writes software that lets an outdated terminal -- a type of computer that gets its computing horsepower from a mainframe computer or a corporate network -- run programs written for Microsoft's Windows.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., agreed to add the technology to the current version of its Windows NT 4.0 operating system.